Long time no see!

We've been busy with crias, the market and summer fun in general.

As you know, we've had four alpaca boys born on the farm this summer.

I could not help thinking of boy bands when I watched them in the pastures.

When I mentioned this to the farmer, he agreed with me

that we should rethink the names of our males.

So, introducing... 

THE BEATLES!

Harrison, McCartney and Lennon.

And this one is Ringo.



 

 Don't tell anyone, but my favorite is Harrison.

 

On the creative side, I've been experimenting some more with felting.

Here is one side

 

and the other side of vases I worked on.

The light blue with pink will need some embroidery to make the rose stand out a bit more.

 

 

 

And this vase was done on July 18th...when I was remembering that day 33 years ago when the farmer and I got married.

 

By the way! I've now joined the rest of the world and have a page on Facebook under the name of Zenitude Fibre Arts (spelling fibre the canadian way).

Come have a peak and 'Like' and 'Share'.

It would be great to reach 50 'Likes' before the end of the summer!

 

I hope you are enjoying your summer...

Number 4!

Nature knows best.

We've had three cria births so far this summer with one more expected...I secretly hoped it would have been born on Tuesday (my birthday) but it was not to happen.

 

But Jessie did the deed the very next day. So wedneday morning, a lovely little white cria was born as we watched from the deck.

 

 

Now, this little one is a bit of a miracle.

Let me explain.

You see, on Easter morning, last March 31st, we noticed something going on in the pasture and when we went out to investigate, we found a 5 lbs very very premature baby cria on the ground.

He was not alive when we got to him.

We checked our girls to find out which one had given birth and realized it was Jessie.

It's always devastating to loose an animal, especially one that looks perfectly normal.

But we know that this is part of life on a farm and we do our best to accept it as it is.

Still, we wondered what had triggered the premature birth.

Was it stress? Was it an injury? Was it an anomaly?

As the weeks went by, we were amazed that Jessie still looked huge and pregnant.

Till one morning, we saw movement...definite baby movement.

We were ecstatic! but also very confused!

Now, that she's given birth we can conclude that Jessie was pregnant with twins.

Twins are extremely rare in alpacas and very few survive. Most twins do not survive the 335 days of a normal pregnancy to even be born. Delivery of twins can be complicated as well. 

Her body aborted one but kept the other...Quite lucky that she was able to keep this one to full term.

 

And you might have guessed it...this is the fourth male born this year.

2013 is the year of the boys I guess.

 

 

First of the season

Cria season has begun!

Alicia had her little one on Wednesday morning. A beautiful little white male.

I'm so amazed that even though he's not even 12 hours old, he can walk and run around.
Mind you, we saw him take a good nose dive too!

Little pink nose, pure white fibre.
Constant humming between mom and baby.

 

As soon as I see white, I think of all the possibilities of dyeing this soft fibre. 

But this year, I'll be keeping some natural coloured yarn/ roving as well. 

Almost forgot to tell you...we call him Lumi. It means ''snow'' in finnish.
 

We have most likely three more girls expecting...so more new babies to come in the next few weeks.

Lana

Lana is off the needles!
The sun has not been around much lately and today was no exception.
But it did show it's face for about 15 minutes and out the door I went with camera in hand and hubby following behind.
I wondered if we would have any pictures at all with the winds blowing as they were.

But the winds did calm down for a few minutes.

The shawl drapes really nicely because it's knitted from side to side on the bias.

The lace border is knitted with the body of the shawl on one side and is knitted-on on the other side.
I thought this was such a wonderful way to add the border.
The two other shawls in this series are designed the same way.

I love large asymmetrical shawls.
I like tying knots in my shawls and wearing them off to the side.

The yarn I used is from our own herd. It's an alpaca/mohair blend.
Soooooooo soft!
It's light as a feather too and I think I'll be wearing it all year long.

I've been felting shawls this weekend and I have lots to show you...
 

Spring Colours

Hubby went ice fishing last week with family for a good ol' boys fishing time!
I took advantage of this to spend time with my dye pots and catch up on a few neglected chores.

My mother came to spend a few days with me as well and that always means shopping. My mother is an avid shopper with much more stamina for malls than I've ever had.
If it wasn't for her, I think I would rarely set foot in the mall! 

 But it does us good to spend some time together.

I dyed lots of fibre and looking at the colours, the coming of spring must be having an effect on me because most of the tops are very springlike!!
Many of these will be listed in my Etsy shop over the next couple of weeks.

I also had some fun with lace weight yarns.
I stumbled upon a different way to dye my skeins and I quite like the effect.

 

And some sock weight yarn.

Some of these will go to the market with me this summer, others in my Etsy shop and to the LYS.

 

The alpaca fibre is getting longer and longer on the animals.
I keep looking at the girls we bred last summer and wonder if any of them are pregnant or if it's all that fibre making them look so round and chubby.

How I wish I had x-ray vision to see what is going on in those bellies.

But shearing time is not that far away...and that might give us a better idea once the fibre is off.

But look at Carmella's coat!
Full of hay, she loves to lie in it and obviously roll in it too!

You know who will be picking all of those little pieces of hay out? Yes, that would be MOI!

 

My mother suggested I go out there and brush her but I don't think that Carmella would be too keen on that idea.

I must get back to my Alcyone scarf and finish it soon. I also need to find myself a mindless knitting project for those times when concentration is out of the question!
I'm thinking a hat or fingerless mittens...

Smitten!

I'm back from a busy weekend!

The 2-day craft show in Sturgeon Falls was crazy busy. It was great to talk to so many people, people I went to high school with, neighbors of my parents, relatives and friends from the past.

I brought a lot less home than what I left with which is always a wonderful feeling.

My wonderful mother helped me for the whole weekend, it was so much fun to have a partner with me.

The market for alpaca products is still very new in Canada and many don't yet know about the wonderful quality of the yarn or fibre produced by these animals.

Five times warmer than sheep's wool is an important feature in northern climates. Hypoallergenic is also an important bonus in this day and age where so many people have sensitivities and allergies of all kind. And the softness of the yarn will win anyone over.

 

I met one young woman that told me her hubby wears his alpaca socks all year long on the farm, even in the hot summers. Another talked about never having cold feet on the long hours spent ice fishing on the lake since she wears her alpaca socks. Others had purchased them for a bed ridden relative that was always cold and were looking for another pair.

Great feedback from satisfied customers is always good!

 

 

Even though the alpaca products play a large part of what keeps me busy now, I still love to make soap...guess I always will.

I made some gift-ready soap bags this year.

Perfect for teachers, hostesses, friends or a Kris Kringle gift.

 

My aunt had a table across from me selling her fudge made from a long time family recipe. My grandmother was well known for her sucre à la crème as we call it in french. (It translates to creamed sugar and believe me you'll feel the sugar high with just a small taste of it.) Memère used to make sure there was lot's of it on the table at all times and every wedding had sucre à la crème at each place setting for the guests. Now, my aunt is keeping the tradition going for others to enjoy.

This is not a chocolate fudge, although she had some of that too. It's a butter, cream and sugar treat.

I bet you could not just eat one! Mmmmmmmm!

 

Next to me was a talented young woman selling super beautiful mittens made from colourful felted wool sweaters. Such an eco-friendly idea.

The name of her business is Northern Smittens, what a great name!

Her new Etsy shop can be seen here! Let her know if you want anything and Josée will be very happy to ship it to you.

(picture used with permission from Josée)

 

Well, seems the week will be busy, I have a few orders to fill and then I'll get ready for the next show on Dec 2nd.

Enjoy your week!

 

Craft show season

Craft show season is here!

I'm participating in two shows this year.

I'll be heading to Sturgeon Falls for a 2 day show on November 17-18.

Then the Witty artisan show here in North Bay at the Portage Hotel on Dec 2nd.

I needed a sign to help people identify my alpaca products when they walk into my booth or come up to my table. Since we have not yet decided on a logo for our farm, I used a favorite picture of Alicia taken earlier this fall and had a 20 x 24 poster made from it.

It turned out pretty good.

I'm happy with it.

After several weeks of not touching my dye pots. I spent several days concocting brighter colours and it all started with the red I spoke about here.

And things got crazy after that!

What fun I had!

This is all LACE weight merino which I had not had for some time. They are mostly semi-solids and would look wonderful knitted up with beads...what do you think?

There are some wonderful shawls out there.

It will be available in my LYS and Etsy in the next few days.

Part of my 2012 alpaca fleece harvest is back from the mill as well.

I have wonderful fiber and yarns to get ready!

No time to waste, off I go to play some more!





Early morning birth

The window in our bedroom is low enough that we can see out to the pastures when lying in bed. I love looking outside as I wake up. Doesn't matter what season it is, the scenery is always beautiful.  This morning, I got up at about 6am and I could see one white alpaca was out of the barn. She was by herself. 

We realized that it was Alicia and that she was giving birth. About 10 minutes later, a white cria was on the ground.

We felt very lucky to witness this. What a great way to start your day!

We watched from the window as this newborn struggled to get up on his feet.

The herd quickly gathered to congratulate the mom and admire the little one.

Fernando came over to get a closer look and greet his new playmate.

A little white male, 17.4 lbs. 

I love the little pink nose.

He must take after his mom, I find Alicia very pretty.

We have not yet come up with a name for him.

(little dance of joy for more white fleece for me.)

On to a knitting update...

I went to my LYS the other day and had a look around...should have known this would be too tempting. But the damage is not too bad!

When I saw the colour combination of this skein, I knew I had to have it!

I certainly don't need more sock yarn but I just could not resist it.

Fleece Artist from Nova Scotia have the most beautiful colourways! 

Now I can't wait to complete the pair of super plain socks I'm currently working on...almost there.

I'll tell you all about this new short row heel I found on YouTube when I'm done knitting them.

Till then, stay cool. Certain parts of Ontario are being hit by a heat wave.

Alpaca scarf

The winter sun is warming up the house nicely today. Spring is just around the corner. But I am not yet tired of the snow...there's so little of it!

Hubby picked up some beautiful canna lillies for St-Valentine's. I will be able to plant the bulbs outside this spring and maybe get them to bloom again.

The Purl Bee website is one of my favorite sites. I just love so many of the patterns that they publish,  both for knitting or sewing.

Last week, they posted a new pattern for a scarf and I had it on the needles that same night. I had the perfect yarn in my stash to knit this scarf. I've been knitting on it every day since.

The stitch is simple to knit but looks so interesting...almost like a waffle stitch. I can't wait to see it blocked.

The yarn is 100% alpaca from a local farm nearby, Misty Haven Alpacas. It's a DK weight and creamy white....just so soft. Perfect luxury for this scarf.

Have you noticed my new knitting 'basket'?

This is a salad bowl that we've had for many, many years. We use it a few times a year when we have large family dinners. So it ends up being stored away most of the time.

But now that I've found a new use for it, it will be in the living room from now on with my current project, right next to my chair.

I love multi purpose items, don't you?